Gaming industry analyst Mat Piscatella has claimed that the biggest competition Grand Theft Auto 6 may face could come from GTA 5. Despite Grand Theft Auto 6's impending launch next year, GTA 5 frequently appears in bestseller lists, 12 years after its initial release.
It is fair to suggest that Grand Theft Auto 6 has been a long time coming. When the game releases next year, it will have been almost 13 years since the last new title in the series. In between the two games, Rockstar did release Red Dead Redemption 2, which was a massive success in its own right. Despite the huge gap between games, Grand Theft Auto 5 is still among the most-played games on the market, owing to its incredible replayability and constant stream of content in GTA Online.
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Grand Theft Auto 6's Main Competition May Come From Within
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, gaming industry analyst Mat Piscatella discussed games that launched to huge success, and have simply refused to go away. "You look at something like Fortnite," he said. "It's been, what, seven, eight years now that that thing's been the biggest thing in the world. Or Minecraft. And Grand Theft Auto 5 launched in 2013. It's still one of the top 20 bestselling games every single month. The biggest competitor to Grand Theft Auto 6 will be Grand Theft Auto 5. It's wild times to be trying to make new video games."
Although Piscatella is making his point solely based on Grand Theft Auto 5's longevity, a look around the competition shows there's a reason GTA has prevailed time and time again. It's a tough time for supposed Grand Theft Auto killers. Saints Row had merit for a while, but the flop of the 2022 reboot was enough to kill off developer Volition. The recent failure of MindsEye has essentially killed that franchise before it could ever get off the ground. Even Ubisoft's Watch Dogs hasn't been seen in five years now, despite the series largely finding financial success. In this context, it's no surprise why Grand Theft Auto 6 may only really face competition from within.
The release of Grand Theft Auto 6 is still nine months away, and fans only have the two trailers to pore over. While gamers shouldn't expect marketing to be in full swing quite yet, hopefully Rockstar will release the brakes a little as 2026 draws closer. Grand Theft Auto 6 has the potential to be one of the biggest video game launches ever, so it's only natural that the hype is only growing as the launch approaches.
OpenCritic Reviews
- Released
- November 19, 2026
- ESRB
- Rating Pending - Likely Mature 17+
- Developer(s)
- Rockstar Games
- Publisher(s)
- Rockstar Games
